


you ain't never too much work for me

by kosmokuns



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Autism, Autistic Character, Autistic Davey Jacobs, Hurt/Comfort, Jack Is A Good Boyfriend, M/M, Sensory Overload, This is a, and davey has a, bc of, davey is just not having a good time, i love to see it, look at that, shutdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:14:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22533061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kosmokuns/pseuds/kosmokuns
Summary: The day began as bad as it possibly could for Davey – he was woken up by the grating of the showers in his ears and he knew right there that the day was going to be rough. He’d stupidly made the decision to stay the night at the lodgings with Jack, somehow convincing himself that everything would be fine, but of course, the lodgings always had too much noise and heat for him to function.alternatively;davey has a shutdown at breakfast
Relationships: David Jacobs/Jack Kelly
Comments: 13
Kudos: 110





	you ain't never too much work for me

**Author's Note:**

> i am autistic myself and i tried to stay as true to what i feel as possible, but just a reminder that all autistic people are different and experience things in a different way!

The day began as bad as it possibly could for Davey – he was woken up by the grating of the showers in his ears and he knew right there that the day was going to be rough. He’d stupidly made the decision to stay the night at the lodgings with Jack, somehow convincing himself that everything would be fine, but of course, the lodgings always had too much noise and heat for him to function.

The first thing was the showers, and then the chugging of the tap as he brushed his teeth, and then the clanging of metal spoons on bowls and to top it all off, the rowdy atmosphere of a summer morning, with tens of boys yelling and laughing in a stuffy enclosed space with the scent of food swirling around them. His brain felt paralysed. It couldn’t process that much noise in quick succession, so it just didn’t. Which was fucking great. He’d start the day barely being able to talk apart from a yes or no, and for a newsie, that didn’t bode well for a good day of selling.

“Hey Davey, you don’t look too good,” Race said from across the table, concerned lines etched into his face, azure eyes clouded with worry.

“I’m okay,” Davey gritted out, the words almost becoming stuck in his throat. A younger newsie screamed from the table behind them and Davey’s entire body shuddered, his eyes squeezing shut and his hands frantically rubbing the material of his trousers. His brain was frozen. Stopped. He knew Race was speaking, but the words weren’t forming in his mind, he couldn’t understand what was being said, it just sounded tense and quick. A hand fell onto his shoulder delicately and a screech exploded out of his mouth, the skin burning with the sensation of another person touching him. The hand was roughly pulled away, care not being taken to make sure the owner of the hand didn’t feel pain. He felt his own hand reach up to scratch at the area and place his feeling over the foreign one.

It was only then he realised that there was no more noise, that the static in his mind fading. The error messages from his brain were beginning to clear. He blearily opened his eyes, seeing faces but not the expressions on them.

His eyes first went to Race, and he managed to categorise his features into what must have been worry. Tight eyebrows and nose, pursed lips and focused eyes. He couldn’t make a sound, not even a squeak, he was stuck deathly silent. He saw Albert beside Race and decided to skip figuring out his expression and turned behind him to look for who had touched him. Jack and Mush stood there. Jack had his arms crossed, and Mush had them hanging limply down by his sides, eyes on the grounf. That meant Jack was angry, and Mush was embarrassed? Those conclusions didn’t help with who had touched him. He saw Jack slowly uncross his arms and steadily kneel down to his level, eyes bright and face smooth,

“Can you understand me, Davey?” He said, and Davey found that surprisingly, he could. His brain was coming back online. In response he jerked his head up and down and Jack sighed with relief, that made this a lot easier, “Okay, can you talk right now?” Davey opened his mouth, but nothing came out and despondent, he shook his head, “It’s alright,” Jack said softly, “Could you move?” It took a few seconds for a reply, but Davey shook his head again, tears filling in his eyes, “Hey,hey, it’s okay, can I touch you?”

Davey didn’t know. He had no clue how he would react, so he shook his head after a minute of contemplating and Jack smiled,

“That’s fine too, but don’t cry, a fella don’t wanna see you sad,”

Davey’s face remained unreadable except for the tears receding in his eyes, Jack knew they would be back later, but for now they were safe. He turned to Race and gestured for him to clear the room, he knew all the little ones would be scared, and this would be a lot easier on Davey if they weren’t here. As they were climbing the stairs, Finch appeared holding two objects in his hand. One was like a clicker on a pen, though it wasn’t attached to a pen and the other was two paperclips tangled together. He hurried over to the two of them and leant down and whispered in Jack’s ear,

“I thought he might need these,” He pressed them into Jack’s palm then left, shooing the stragglers up the stairs.

“Davey, Finch brought you your fiddles, do you want them?” He held them out so Davey could see in case he hadn’t understood and he snatched them up, immediately clicking the object over and over again, starting to rock back and forth on the bench where he sat.

Jack stayed watching him alone in the hall, he wore a soft, gentle expression on his face, knowing that Davey wasn’t hurting as much anymore. After ten minutes, he began to release the tension out of his muscles and his movement slowed,

“Hi Jackie,” He breathed, voice scratching in his throat, reluctant to form the words in his mouth. Jack smiled,

“Hey Davey, you feeling better?” There were a few seconds delay and then he got a nod and a tiny smile, “That’s good, do you want to head upstairs?”

Jack asked it as a question, but Davey would be going back to his bed no matter what. He knew that Davey became exhausted and would need to sleep for at least 6 hours after this to feel relatively back to his usual state. It would take a few days for the effects of the shutdown to leave him completely, but sleep was a good place to start. His brain needed to rest so he could process anything as right now it was running on reserves, and Jack didn’t know how much time he had left before Davey completely switched off.

Fortunately, Davey nodded his reply and wobbled to his feet, clutching on to Jack to stay stable. They made their way back to Jack’s room where Davey had spent the night, the bed not yet made, and clothes strewn over the floor. Davey made a pained sound and jammed his hands over his eyes and Jack cursed himself for being such an untidy person. He stuffed the clothes under Race’s mattress, knowing the boy would understand and turned Davey around, peeling his hands off his eyes,

“Don’t wanna give yourself a black eye, huh?” He grinned, and Davey moaned, tugging at his collar, “This is too scratchy, isn’t it? We’s gotta get you a new shirt, Dave,” He quickly removed the offending item of clothing and hurried Davey into his bed, his eyes fluttering shut the minute he sat down on it. Jack hurriedly took off his shoes, then manoeuvred him onto his back and ruffled his hair, “Sleep well, Davey,” He whispered and pulled the curtains, tiptoeing out of the room.

Davey woke up 8 hours later with a pounding headache, growling stomach and dry mouth.

“Jack!” He yelled, turning onto his side and the boy appeared at the door,

“Feelin’ better, sleepin’ beauty?” He said cheekily, and Davey groaned,

“I need food and water,” He said, and Jack nodded, smiling,

“I’ll be right back,”

If Jack was offended by his lack of manners, he didn’t show it. Davey knew he understood that anything other than saying the bare minimum now would tire him out for another 8 hours, and that would begin to get dangerous for his health.

Five minutes later Jack reappeared holding a pint of water and some bread and butter with jam. Davey wanted to hit him,

“Jack you can’t keep buying me jam every time my brain goes dead,” He said, and Jack placed the food down beside his bed and put his hands on his hips,

“Look Dave, I know you would eat bread and jam for every meal of every day if you could, so quit gripin’ about what I spend my money on and eat the food,”

Davey rolled his eyes but stuffed the food in his mouth and downing the water. Jack watched him fondly, and when Davey caught him, he sent him a flustered smile, and averted his eyes to the floor. He heard Davey chuckle and thought that anything would be worth it for this boy.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed!! if you did, please leave me a comment, it always makes my day, and i need validation that i wrote this right.  
> ok that's all, good night all my pals out there.


End file.
